Everloyal Shadow
by Sandberry
Summary: It is emotion a tiny Shadow craves, growing stronger and smarter with each feeding. Lanette Amani has plenty to spare....
1. Prologue

Tiny thing. Little Shadow.

Shivering. Cowering.

How odd.

It merely stares, with large, yellow eyes aglow, upward, straight at me. What was it feeling?

Something. Something. Fear? Yes. It balls itself up when I venture a hand down towards it, mewling gently, antennae flitting everywhere. No anger. It wasn't a heart it desired. No. This tiny creation craved something simpler.

I gather my experiment up into my arms, to its dismay or pleasure, I am uncertain. It shivers more, vibrating, practically. Ice-cold. Poor thing.

I run a gloved hand across its head gently, soothingly, caressing each antenna individually, grinning all the while. At this, he… _it_, grows warmer, mewling again. Its body relaxes. Slowly, carefully taking each step, I approach the corridor to the Darkness, my little newborn experiment eyeing the great dark sphere apprehensively.

The lab was cold, but this portal was warm, hopefully comforting. I notice both antennae erect, stock still like ebony soldiers, its eyes, once curious of every wall, instrument, textbook and table now focused directly.

Drawn to it? Afraid? Or curious?

The ebony body began to shiver again, and either eye swiveled up to find my face. Into my coat it burrowed its head affectionately, mewling.

Poor thing.

Against my better judgment, I place the Shadow down before me and shove it into the portal without a second thought, promptly closing it with a wave of my hand afterward.

Plopping down in my seat afterward, I ponder, and I wait.


	2. Chapter One: Discoveries

These tunnels went everywhere. Endlessly.

It was dark, warm, and comfortable, but it made me feel incredibly lightheaded, dizzy, sleepy, _hungry_….

Still, I pressed on. All about me, endless darkness, save for that now all too familiar glow of yellow eyes. Occasionally a larger dark creature would rush by me in a hurry to get to wherever it is it desired to go. Sometimes, I'd want to chase after one just for something alive to grasp, hang onto.

And yet still I press on, even as the corridor grows warmer with each passing second, until its almost unbearable. Once, without thinking, I even try to grasp the antennae of another thing like me, but larger, I think, and stronger, I know. It shakes me off effortlessly to fall to the hot darkness below, hisses, and practically fades into the surrounding darkness, like it was never its own creature to begin with. My body rumbles.

My antennae lower and I feel a clammy, wet feeling build up in my… center? I whimper, mournful, quiet, and gather myself into a dark sphere, allowing the seemingly desperate creatures to crawl all over me.

But than I see _it._

Out of the corner of my eye, glowing bright and strong and happy. Happy.

I'm still far away, but I know it to be cool to the touch, soft, and I want to rub my body against it just to relieve it of all this stifling warm. And, maybe, something else….

Something else draws me too it. I want to touch it, hold it, just be with it. Without thinking, I uncurl myself, get my target directly in my sights, and take off.

Unfortunately, or maybe not, my claw and head, the first to collide with the light, touch nothing but air as the remainder of my body tumbles through. The shock of it, and maybe even the relief, is enough to send my thoughts flying elsewhere.

Its funny, I suppose, that I'd wind up in darkness again after I'd struggled so hard to find light.

* * *

"You sure this is the place?"

Her fingers grasping the front gate, eyes bored, narrowed, Lanette certainly didn't look convinced.

And really, could she be blamed? All the bull crap she'd put up with since the day her parents had forced her into to moving to this backwater place.

_Twilight Town._

It sounded like something out of an after school special.

_But no, this was worse_, thought Ms. Amani, scratching tangled, messy hair with a pinky finger. Twilight Town was _real_.

Her exceptionally attractive female friend had gone the extra mile to find something of worth to explore. Something other than mini malls and boys and other prissy, annoying seventeen-year-old girls with their sneers and gossip and bullshit.

And she'd found _this_.

Like an episode of Scooby Doo gone awry, this mansion with its broken windows and eerie white sheets and almost assuredly creaky front door stood before them, just a smashed up lump of a gate in the way.

"It's something, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Something out of a goddamned slasher flick."

Francis pursed her lips in that pouty, five-year-old manner she was famous for, narrowed her blue eyes, so gorgeous and deep and pretty they were bleeding _annoying_, and crossed her lithe arms.

"Huh. Like anybody like one of those freaks would bother with kids in a world like this."

Frankly, Lanette thought, this is exactly the kind of place they'd set up shop. It's so tiny and this old horror house is so far from the remainder of the town….

How easy it would be….

If she was actually _afraid _of dumb crap like that.

Cocking her head to the right, quirking a brow, stretching up to a pretty pathetic height, Lanette finally offered the question: "Why here?"

Looking quite pleased with herself, as she often did, come to think of it, Francis flashed a Ms. America-worthy smile and strolled over the remains of the gate, careful not to get smudge on her shorts, her boots, hell, her _aura_.

"Quiet. Lonely. Away from society. The whole package, right?"

Much as that was an obvious jeer at her lack of self-esteem, Lanette had to agree that it was a plausible enough excuse. Because it was that or the mini mall, and boy watching at the shitty arcade across the way from the food court with Francis was not her idea of a good time.

So, with little more discussion on the matter, she followed her long time friend.

* * *

I suppose it's kind of funny that I arrive in a place that's cold. The floor's cold. The air's cold. The odd machine in the corner of the room is cold. Everything. 

Hot and cold are all I know, it seems, but that's kind of depressing, so I try not to think much about it.

So instead, I focus on… something else. What's that? In the other corner? Going up? My antennae go wild. My…

What's it called?

Do I even have one?

Whatever it is, it races. Fast. I'm up the blocks that go upward before my body knows what's happening.

* * *

It kind of figures, really. Dusty, cob-web-riddled, and run down as the inside of this mansion is, Francis _still _managed to maintain that air of perfection that flowed around her near endlessly. A perfect step. Perfect hair. Perfect eyes. 

How'd she get to be _my _friend anyway? Well, whatever. We ascend the staircase straight up, look left, right, chatter about stupid things, make comparisons….

I do admit we hadn't a place like this to look around in the world we came from. Ever since that bit with the Nobodies was handled years ago, travel between worlds was all too common, and, inevitably, big companies assembled together to grasp all the unique parts of each world and commercialize them like nothing else.

The hell wasn't this place an attraction already? Weird….

But judging by that look of prissy indifference on Frankie's face, I know she isn't concerned with that. What's the next adventure we can stumble into? Where can we go? What can we find?

For God's sake, she's like a fucking _five-year-old_.

Now, I do find it a bit strange when we enter a room that's a lot better kept than the rest of the house: painted white all over, even the fireplace, table, chairs. _Everything_. It's so bright my eyes start to hurt, and I urge Francis out by grasping her sleeve.

"C'mon, Lanette. Relax. Something like this just shouts out…"

"Adventure flick?"

"Yeah. Something like that."

My friend flashes that smile again, and I can't help but stay and look around more.

Goddamn her.

* * *

These things. 

Thick. Heavy. They fall with a loud "ker-plop" when they hit the ground, and they're full of shapes and patterns and flat white stuff. The patterns are usually black, but not always. Some even have pictures, and that makes them let much more interesting.

I'm obsessed, and I don't even know it.

All these things: big, small, smelly, heavy, light… pretty tasteless, though. What are they? What do this swirls, lines, loops, patterns… mean?

I'm so close to finding something, so _close_, but than.

I hear a noise.

That really, really figures.

* * *

Netty and I are about to stumble on something _huge_, I know it! 

She doesn't look all that excited about it, though. Her arms are crossed, her head's somewhere else, and she practically drags her feet across the floor like they're magnetically attracted to them, or something.

What's her problem? Why can't she be more optimistic?

But than, I remember, that's Lanette for you! She keeps things stable, adds some reason. God, I love her.

I suppose that's why I'm worried when she opens the door across the hall from that white room….

And screams.

_

* * *

_


End file.
